


The Psychological Break Of One Jason Todd (The Aftermath Thereof)

by BrokenWingedTenshi



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminals, Alternate Universe - Psychopaths, Arkham Asylum, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Bruce Wayne is Not Batman, Crime Boss Bruce Wayne, Damian Wayne is Not Robin, Damian Wayne is a Little Shit, Dick Grayson is Concerned, Dick Grayson is Not Nightwing, F/M, Famous Wayne Family, I Don't Even Know, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Jason Todd is Insane, Jason Todd is Not Red Hood, Jason Todd is Robin, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Is Not Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng is not scared, Meet the Family, Murder, Organized Crime, The Author Regrets Everything, The Author Regrets Nothing, Tim Drake is Not Red Robin, What Have I Done, What Was I Thinking?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:27:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26542921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrokenWingedTenshi/pseuds/BrokenWingedTenshi
Summary: Jason Todd was a criminal. He knew that. His whole family were criminals really, not that anyone could ever prove it. Jason was just the most . . . unstable. Enter his very pretty nurse and three very concerned brothers.Or two concerned brothers and whatever one would call Damian.(2 chapters, maybe more if there's ever any demand for it.)
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 19
Kudos: 196





	1. Chapter 1

Jason always knew he was . . . different than his brothers. He was more unhinged. Unstable. But I guess that's to be expected when you spend three years of your life in a hospital bed unconscious from a bit of gang activity gona wrong. Not that anybody really attributed it to that, but they pretended to. Really, Jason was always a bit screwy. He was different than his brothers in fundamental ways. The first and foremost being how he'd been brought into the family.

Bruce Wayne was a scary man, but when you're a starving orphan stripping cars for parts while the owners are doing business you don't exactly pay much attention to whose car you're vandalizing. Bruce had gone into Wayne Enterprises to pick up a gift he'd had sent there to keep it out of his son's sticky fingers. Really, he couldn't hide anything from Dick. That kid could and would get into whatever it was he wanted no matter where in the house it was. His background and continued rigorous training in acrobatics made sure of it. Part of why Bruce had adopted him to begin with. He made a half assed show of pretending to be annoyed but really he was never prouder than when he came home from work to find Dick dismantling and reassembling a rifle up on the chandelier, barely visible to his discerning eye.

Back to the matter at hand, point was that he couldn't hide anything from Dick. So he'd hidden the boy's birthday present in his office. By the time Bruce returned precisely seventeen minutes and thirteen seconds later, Jason was working on removing the last tire. He had half a mind to turn whoever this was in . . . at least until he saw the person. He was just a kid. Couldn't be more than twelve years old. A few years younger than Dick. So instead, he put a hand on the boy's shoulder and showed him the smile he turned on his business partners.

"You're coming with me."

The boy froze, turning towards him slowly. He raised a brow, eyes surprisingly steely for a kid. He looked ready to bolt.

"What for?"

Bruce's smile turned sharp.

"To see your new home of course."

**§§§§§§§§§**

Jason never wanted siblings. He didn't want anything resembling a family, really, but it didn't look like he had much of a choice. First, there was Dick. There wasn't much Jason could say about him. He was here first. And he treated him well. They learned and grew side by side and, despite Jason's best efforts, they were family.

He wasn't there when Tim arrived. He was a bit busy taking his three year nap. He was eleven when Bruce found him, thirteen when he went under, and sixteen when he finally woke up. He met Tim when he was sixteen and Tim was thirteen but ready to do whatever he could. He was a smart kid, making himself indispensable to the business side of Bruce's . . . activities. Tim became the tech savvy business partner to Gotham's biggest mob boss. 

He was there when Damian arrived. He was brought by Talia al Ghul, Bruce's connection in the League of Shadows and part-time lover. She stayed a single night in the manor before leaving back to Pakistan without her baby assassin in tow. He was to stay with them and learn the tricks of the trade. He fit in perfectly with their cutthroat way of life. And with three competitive older brothers? Damian was in his element.

**§§§§§§§§§**

"Jason Peter Todd-Wayne, you have been charged with the murder of Miss Barbra Gordon, how do you plead?"

_**"I plead** _ _**insanity~"** _

**§§§§§§§§§**

"Jason just hang in there. We're gonna get you out soon."

Jason considered it for a moment, or at least pretended to. He looked at his brothers through the wall of glass separating them with a grin.

_**"**_ Hmmm, no thanks Dickie Boy."

Dick looked confused, arching a brow. Ah yes, the disapproving older brother look. Jason was intimately familiar with it.

"What do you mean no thanks?"

Damian crossed his arms over his chest, looking for all the world like a miniature Bruce Wayne.

"It's not like we didn't know he'd end up here eventually Richard. I say leave him to rot."

Tim sighed tiredly, rubbing at his temples. Jason was a little worried. His brother had been getting migraines more and more often. It could be a serious problem.

"Then it's a good thing it isn't up to you Damian."

Damian went to respond, but fell silent when Dick turned that look on them.

"Quiet, both of you! Jason, what do you mean?"

Jason tilted his head to one side, that dyed strip of white dancing at the boundaries of his vision.

"I mean what I said. Every day there's this nice girl that comes in here. Cute little thing too. They strap me to a table and we make small talk while she doses me."

Damian scoffed.

"So is it the obvious crush or the drugs addling your brain?"

Jason grinned wildly, a sharp glint in his eyes.

"Neither . . . it's the fear."

Tim looked up at him, brows drawing together.

". . . What?"

Jason continued on as though he hadn't spoken.

"The FEAR! Her fear is intoxicating. She comes in hopeful every day like she doesn't know where it's going and we talk. I steer the conversation toward what I see, what I WANT and watch her expression fill with fear till she's trembling like a frightened bunny rabbit and I never even have to move an inch."

Damian arched one perfectly plucked brow. 

"Todd, you've cracked."

Jason just grinned.

"That's what the judge says but a warm bed, three meals a day and that cute little rabbit say I'm right where I need to be."

**§§§§§§§§§**

_"_ _Why?"_

Marinette. His nurse's name was Marinette. Not that he ever used her actual name.

_"_ Why what sugar cube?"

She puffed her cheeks out. She hated that nickname. It's why he insisted on using it.

"Why did you do it?"

He tilted his head to one side, something she noticed he did often. As though he were listening for something. That knowing tilt of his lips though . . . it was almost a smile.

"The things they say I did, or what they could charge me with?"

She huffed softly.

" . . . You're a real asshole, you know that?"

He simply smiled.Why wouldn't he? She was right.

"Maybe so Mari, but I'll never tell you a lie."

She paused. Did that mean-?

" . . . So will you tell me why you did it?"

Jason sighed tiredly, and he looked fatigued. She was sure if he wasn't strapped to his chair he'd be rubbing a hand over his face.

". . . Because Barbara- the girl I killed? My brother Dick's PA, by the way, it's how I knew her . . . Barbara was sick of life, and I was sick of being someone's trophy. She begged, you know. She was so tired of everything, and she begged me to end it all . . . so I did. Better I killed her than the lung cancer anyways."

Marinette hesitated again, starting in a small voice.

". . . And what about you?"

He arched one dark brow at her.

"What about me?"

She swallowed, phrasing her question.

"Who are you now?"

He really, truly considered it. Had Barbara's death changed him in some profound way? He didn't think so. No more than death ever changes anyone. He shrugged.

"I'm just Jason."

§§§§§§§

Marinette looked unhappy today. Which meant Jason was in a sour mood.

"So . . . I hear you're getting out."

Jason blinked at her a few times, slow moments where his eyes weren't visible to her. She didn't see the momentary confusion.

"No."

She drew back a little. Apparently that had not been the answer she was expecting.

"What do you mean?"

He looked at her, mildly annoyed. Not with her of course, just general annoyance.

"I mean what I said. I'm not leaving."

She puffed up her cheeks in that cute way she had, and he resisted to give in the the smile that made his lips twitch.

"Well why not? You don't want to go back to the real world?"

He'd never understand that phrase. "The real world-" this was the real world.

"My cell is just as real as my bed back home . . . you're just as real as my family."

She hesitated, but decided to take the plunge.

". . . What if we left together?"

". . . I might be up for that."

**§§§§§§§§§**

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

This was the first time he'd been outside the asylum and he was holding the still breathing body of the girl he'd come to love.

"I removed the obstacle from your retrieval's success. You're welcome."

Dick just barely kept him from lunging, but restrained didn't mean he couldn't yell. 

"I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU LITTLE DEMON!"

Damian scoffed.

"I did what I had to. I will not apologize."

Jason was caught up in his memories, dazed gaze towards the sky. 

"WE WERE GOING TO LEAVE HERE! TOGEtHER! GO SOMEWHERE YOU PRICKS COULDN'T FIND US! MAKE A HOME! AND NOW SHE MAY NEVER WAKE UP BECAUSE OF YOU!"

Damian shrugged his shoulders..

". . . You belong here. With us."

Jason's expression turned stony.

"That's where you're wrong Damian. I don't belong here. I haven't in a long time. If she doesn't wake up? . . . They'll have another my murder they can charge me for."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Too long. She'd been asleep too long. She could feel it in the way her eyes were reluctant to open. The sluggish responses of her limbs when she tried to move. . . The defeated look on Jason's strong features.

Sleep was heavy on her consciousness, trying to push and pull her back down. Away from the surface and into her dreams. The one place she had always belonged. Mostly, she dreamt of a man she knew. Or thought she should know. He had wild, untamed black hair with one eye catching white streak in it. His eyes were a radioactive shade of green, catching the light in beautiful ways and glinting with pure, unadulterated madness . . . It was intoxicating.

How heady it was to know that this wonderful, broken, beautiful man loved her. How powerful that knowledge was, for it kept her going. She knew that this was not right. This image looked like her Jason. Felt like her Jason. Spoke and talked and acted like her Jason. But it wasn't right. So many things didn't add up about this place. She never got tired, for one. But when going somewhere she simply blinked and suddenly she was far from where she'd started. From her apartment in Gotham, all it took was a blink of her eyes and suddenly she was with Jason in Paris or England or Spain. They'd riden gondolas in Venice, raced four-wheelers through the desert, swung over ravines on vines in the jungle. But none of it was real.

This copy of Jason was never angry. He never raised his voice at her or got that little crease she knew appeared between his brows when he thought too hard. He never yelled at his brothers. Not when they saw Dick and Kori in Venice, or when Tim swung down from big ben without his mask, or even when Damian had interrupted an intimate moment when camping on the deck of a ship somewhere in the Atlantic.

The copies of her family were not angry at her. Her parents were supportive of her decision to go to Gotham. Understanding that she had needed something Paris couldn't give her. Adrien and Kagami were together and happy, engaged in fact. They wished her well in her blossoming relationship, never threatening Jason or yelling at her for her selfishness. Alya and Nino invited her to her bachelorette party, which Lila (who had married Kim and was swollen with child) asked for her help to plan. There was no fighting, no accusations of things she'd never done, no reminders of her forced isolation in middle and high school. And when she asked about it, no one knew what she was talking about. They didn't recognize the name Hawk Moth either. They asked if she was okay.

This world seemed like a paradise. Everyone told her she should just be happy . . . Why wasn't she. She fought at every turn, moving and running and fighting until that perfect world crumbled to ash beneath her feet. The last to disappear was her love. And she knew this cookie cutter copy wasn't her Jason but . . . That didn't mean it hurt any less to watch him turn to dust and drift away on a breeze she couldn't feel.

It felt like she'd been asleep for years. She struggled so much to get to the surface. To move, open her eyes, even to twitch. It took a superhuman strength to reveal her baby blues.

Too long. She'd been asleep too long. She could feel it in the way her eyes were reluctant to open. The sluggish responses of her limbs when she tried to move. . . The defeated look on Jason's strong features.

The beeping of her heart monitor sped up at the sight of him, and when she tried to say his name she just ended up coughing, her throat dry and vocal cords tight with disuse. But he looked up, and he was her Jason again. She never wanted to see him look like that again. Her Jason was strong, and brave and just a little bit out of his mind. But he was so smart, and once he knew he wasn't going to scare her off, he was gentle with her too.

She couldn't help but think back to a time where he was the patient and she was taking care of him. She remembered it like it was yesterday. His voice from back then was still so clear.

_"How's it goin' sugar cube?"_

_She had rolled her eyes in exasperation. She hated that nickname. It reminded her of_ _all the pet names Adrien used to call her. Back before she had told him she couldn't cater to Lila at the expense of herself. He had called her selfish. It was the day she finally lost all feeling towards the boy._

_"You started calling me that just to aggravate me, but I'm pretty sure you're saying it unironically now. It's kind of concerning."_

_He gave her that grin. The one that made her heart beat wildly against her chest, as though trying to place itself in his hands._

_"Does it still annoy you?"_

_"YES!"_

_He grinned wider and she could see that little spark of madness ignite in his eyes._

_"Then I don't see the issue little rabbit."_

** _Little_ ** _**rabbit.**_ ~~ ~~

_The name he called her when he was starting to get unstable again. When he started viewing her as prey to play with rather than a person. She knew the warning signs by now. She wisely let the discussion drop, setting to work filling the first of the syringes she would need._

_Jason was eerily silent, and she couldn't help that she immediately put her guard up when he was quiet. She noticed that cute little indent between his brows. The one he got when he was thinking of something intently._

_"Hey Marinette?"_

_Her breath caught in her throat. He never called her by her name. What could be so important? She swallowed around the lump in her throat._

_"Yes?"_

_His eyes flickered between spaces on the padded walls before he was finally able to look her in the eyes._

_"Do you think we would have met if I hadn't been committed?"_

_Marinette couldn't help the soft smile that spread across her features._

_"Jason . . . I think we would've met no matter what we did. There are certain things in life that are simply meant to be. You and I are an inevitability. A staple in this reality that would've come to be someday soon, even if you hadn't come here. You're my destiny Jason. If I had to rip apart reality itself, we would always have been each other's."_

_Jason was in awe. The way he looked at her was positivity reverent. As though she were someone special. Someone to be adored._

_"I couldn't have said it better myself."_

Her Jason was perfect. Soft and sweet when they were alone, though he would never admit it to anyone. And he was here. Here, giving her that same reverent look as she pushed herself to sitting up. 

"Marinette . . . "

A doctor she hadn't seen come in gave her some water, and she drank it down greedily. A wry smile tugged across her features.

"Hey Jay bird. Miss me?"

He just about bowled her over. He still wanted to kill Damian though, for nearly taking his girl away. But revenge was a dish best served cold. And he and his love would serve their revenge to Damian on ice. But of course, first Marinette had to regain her strength. And he had to regain some small bit of self control. But they could do it. As long as he could keep looking into those big beautiful blue eyes.


End file.
